Katie Alender & Winston

FROM THE ARCHIVES:

From a 2009 Coffee with a Canine Q & A with Katie Alender and her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Winston:

Does Winston have any tricks?

Oh, Winston is MUCH more than just a pretty face! He’s a very fast learner and loves to work on tricks. We clicker-train, which I recommend for anyone wanting to teach their dog new behaviors. Winston can sit, stay, lie down, leave it, shake, high-five, double-high-five, spin, walk in a circle around me, play dead, swat kisses that are blown at him, and “go say hi.”

He learned “go say hi” when I was working on the dog show—he came to the office with me every day from the time he was 8 weeks old. We had a gate at the office door, and when someone came by, we apparently would say, “Go say hi!” I don’t know exactly how we realized it, but even if he’s asleep, you can say, “Go say hi!” and he’ll get up and run to the nearest door.

We took one Agility class, and Winston rocked, but it aggravated a back injury he got when he jumped off a too-high surface last year. So no more of that. But he loves to work on training. And I highly recommend clicker-training for anyone—my neighbor borrowed a clicker and a book of dog tricks from me and has taught her 16-year-old cat to sit, stay, sit up, jump over a stick… it’s...[read on]

Visit Katie Alender's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue